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Studiologic Numa Compact 2x


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Kudos to Studiologic. Gianni has just replied to my message that I put on their Web site. Fast polite response, and they will try to duplicate my setup as far as possible. Impressed.

 

Absolutely great to hear! I also have nothing but praise for the studiologic personnel that I met with at NAMM before as well.

 

Regarding the USB-Audio playback, StudioLogic has already had this functionality working and available before on the Numa Compact 2, so I am curious about what is different in your setup? Are you taking the output from the Integrated audio interface and then feeding that into the input side of your own audio interface? Can you clarify what your "work flow" is?

----------------------------------------------------------

 

Gig: Yamaha MODX7, NumaX 73 Piano  Studio: Kawai ES-920; Hammond SK Pro 73; Yamaha Motif ES7 w/DX,VL,VH; Yamaha YC 73; Kawai MP-6; Numa Compact 2x

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All good info! Glad to hear the issue came down to user-error (sorry, Hughster!) and not the product. ;)

 

Thanks for sharing that info Hugh. I see this board as occupying a very specific "sweet spot", which is: a controller for VIs running on an iPad or similar. The light weight, plentiful control capabilities and USB audio, as well as what seems to be a "competent" action, all play into this. So your issues with USB audio are significant. It will be interesting to hear what Studiologic come back with.

 

The pitch stick thing is weird. I see in page 12 of this thread that Stick 1 is sprung in both axes while Stick 2 is sprung in only one. Are you saying that your Stick 1 is not X-sprung? Has a rubber band fallen off in transit?

Cheers, Mike.

I'm hoping this board will hit the sweet spot you described as that's exactly what I'm looking for. A full 88-key piano with decent onboard sounds if I don't want to bring my MacBook, or if I'm really picky I bring it anyway and run MainStage.

 

The pitch/mod sticks are almost a deal-breaker for me, but I'm anticipating if their performance is that poor, I could just assign mod wheel control from MainStage to one of the drawbars.

MainStage; Hammond SK1-73; Roland XP-80, JV-90, JV-1080, JV-1010, AX-1; Korg microSAMPLER;

Boss DR-880; Beat Buddy; Neo Instruments Ventilator; TC Electronic ND-1 Nova Delay

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Well, I did some research and found out that American Musical and Sound is the U.S. distributor for Studiologic products. So, I emailed them and I received a very thoughtful response, which I'll post below:

 

<<>>:

 

"Hey there...

 

Ive had an order for the Studiologic Numa Compact 2x with an online retailer (Sweetwater) since June. The delivery date keeps getting pushed back (currently, 10/6) and I wanted to know when it will be available in the U.S. (it has been in stock at retailers in England, Finland, and Germany for weeks).

 

Thanks!"

 

<<>>:

 

"Hi Tom,

 

First, let me apologize for any delays youve experienced with the Numa Compact 2X. I can tell you it certainly is not the fault of Sweetwater. They have been patiently waiting for us to ship them their order. However, we have yet to receive our first shipment from the factory. Delays like this are common with newly-launched products.

 

I recommend you not cancel your order with Sweetwater, because they were one of the first dealers to order this product and are guaranteed to receive an allocation from our first shipment. The first shipment is scheduled to arrive in our warehouse any day now.

 

There reason that England, Finland, and Germany have had it for weeks is because it ships from Italy. Our shipments come by ocean to the USA and take a few weeks longer to arrive.

 

All the best,

 

Stuart."

 

 

So, there is hope! Unfortunately, my Sweetwater rep emailed me to let me know that the latest ETA is October 17th. *sigh*

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AMS, who competes with Sweetwater in the online retail business

You're thinking of American Music Supply, not American Music and Sound.

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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Just spent a few hours having fun with the thing. Internal sounds are perfectly usable - and the keyboard still feels good - you have to dig in quite hard to get the aftertouch.

I really don't know if Soundlogic have got the sticks correctly set up here. I can live with the non-X return on stick 2 (if you were using it to control Leslie speed or something like that), provided it isn't assigned to anything that really affects the pitch. It seems that Stick 1, which I would expect to be pitch, isn't, in a lot of cases. All of this may just be me, but they're not easy controls to get on with right now.

Also, the MIDI implementation seems odd to me. I'm going to work a little harder at it, and produce my own guide on how to use the controller and keyboard MIDI OUTs with a DAW.

But so far, so good. Worth the (for me) short wait.

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I can live with the non-X return on stick 2

It's good to have a control that doesn't spring back, as is typical of mod wheels.

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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AMS, who competes with Sweetwater in the online retail business

You're thinking of American Music Supply, not American Music and Sound.

Whoops -- I've probably overlaid the two companies for 10 years. :blush: Now I gotta figure out which is which....

-Tom Williams

{First Name} {at} AirNetworking {dot} com

PC4-7, PX-5S, AX-Edge, PC361

 

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OK, I've found a couple of (quite major) bugs in my NC2X through experimentation and analysis of MIDI monitor logs.

1) The two ports (KEYBOARD and CONTROLLER) are mislabelled in the firmware. Now the MIDI implementation makes perfect sense where it didn't before.

2) Stick 1 works when you first turn on the instrument, but as soon as you wiggle Stick 2, it seems to hijack Stick 1's functions and disable it entirely. I can think of a couple of ways this might happen in programming, but obviously there's no way for me to fix it.

I'm in contact with Gianni at SL, who seems like a really nice and helpful guy, and I am confident that I either got a pre-production firmware model (mine is 1.0.0) or that SL will upgrade the firmware to take account of these.

PS despite not knowing about the bugs until today, I had a lot of fun yesterday with the beast. I am liking the actual keyboard more and more, and the sounds haven't started to grate on the ears yet.

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OK, I've found a couple of (quite major) bugs in my NC2X through experimentation and analysis of MIDI monitor logs.

1) The two ports (KEYBOARD and CONTROLLER) are mislabelled in the firmware. Now the MIDI implementation makes perfect sense where it didn't before.

2) Stick 1 works when you first turn on the instrument, but as soon as you wiggle Stick 2, it seems to hijack Stick 1's functions and disable it entirely. I can think of a couple of ways this might happen in programming, but obviously there's no way for me to fix it.

I'm in contact with Gianni at SL, who seems like a really nice and helpful guy, and I am confident that I either got a pre-production firmware model (mine is 1.0.0) or that SL will upgrade the firmware to take account of these.

PS despite not knowing about the bugs until today, I had a lot of fun yesterday with the beast. I am liking the actual keyboard more and more, and the sounds haven't started to grate on the ears yet.

 

Really? Theyre six months late (so far) getting it out (to the U.S. anyway) and it has this many bugs? Of course there are probably more that havent been discovered yet. I wonder what vapor ware is going to be shown by them at NAMM 2019 in January?

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[Really? Theyre six months late (so far) getting it out (to the U.S. anyway) and it has this many bugs?

Apparently you're not familiar with Numa/Studiologic. ;-)

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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[Really? Theyre six months late (so far) getting it out (to the U.S. anyway) and it has this many bugs?

Apparently you're not familiar with Numa/Studiologic. ;-)

I'm not very familiar with Studiologic. AnotherScott, could you please enlighten us if you have time?

MainStage; Hammond SK1-73; Roland XP-80, JV-90, JV-1080, JV-1010, AX-1; Korg microSAMPLER;

Boss DR-880; Beat Buddy; Neo Instruments Ventilator; TC Electronic ND-1 Nova Delay

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Just that it's not uncommon for their stuff to be buggy. Sometimes it gets fixed, sometimes it doesn't. That doesn't mean the stuff is unusable by any means, but I'm not surprised that some stuff may not work exactly as expected.

Maybe this is the best place for a shameless plug! Our now not-so-new new video at https://youtu.be/3ZRC3b4p4EI is a 40 minute adaptation of T. S. Eliot's "Prufrock" - check it out! And hopefully I'll have something new here this year. ;-)

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Hmmm... Gianni is claiming he can't reproduce what I am seeing - but I don't know what firmware revision he has installed.

However, this is not a deal-breaker, though I have to confess I would like working pitch wheel, etc. but there are ways round this for external (FX-Autoset OFF, both sticks ON) gives Stick 2-Y PB, Stick 2-X Mod); and internal (FX-Autoset OFF, Stick 1=ON, Stick 2=SOUND) gives the same X-Y mapping for Stick 2 - Stick 1 is disabled.

The mislabelled ports are renameable in Studio One (the DAW I use) so that's not an issue.

Otherwise, happy with the beast.

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Was wondering how the NC2x handles an ipad for extra sounds.

 

I use a Korg PlugKey: a MIDI cable connects to the keyboard, a built-in lightning cable connects to the iPad, and an 1/8 to 1/8 cable plugs from the PlugKey into the AUDIO IN on the keyboard.

 

I really like the PlugKey cause it gives me a little volume knob, which i use all the time.

 

I dont see an audio in for the NC2x, so Im wondering how id integrate my ipad with the NC2x. I see the NC2x has audio over USB, so I was wondering if there was a way to use audio over USB to get my iPad output into the NC2x without resorting to an external mixer.

 

Thanks,

Randy

 

 

Numa Piano X73 /// Kawai ES920 /// Casio CT-X5000 /// Yamaha EW425

Yamaha Melodica and Alto Recorder

QSC K8.2 // JBL Eon One Compact // Soundcore Motion Boom Plus 

Win10 laptop i7 8GB // iPad Pro 9.7" 32GB

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I dont see an audio in for the NC2x, so Im wondering how id integrate my ipad with the NC2x. I see the NC2x has audio over USB, so I was wondering if there was a way to use audio over USB to get my iPad output into the NC2x without resorting to an external mixer.

 

Thanks,

Randy

 

 

Better-qualified experts than me will surely chime in here, but my understanding is that a USB cable will carry audio from iPad to the NC2X speakers/audio outs - and I believe that's simultaneous with MIDI from the NC2X to iPad.

 

Cheers, Mike.

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I dont see an audio in for the NC2x, so Im wondering how id integrate my ipad with the NC2x. I see the NC2x has audio over USB, so I was wondering if there was a way to use audio over USB to get my iPad output into the NC2x without resorting to an external mixer.

Haven't tried that yet, still on my to-do list

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Was wondering how the NC2x handles an ipad for extra sounds.

 

I use a Korg PlugKey: a MIDI cable connects to the keyboard, a built-in lightning cable connects to the iPad, and an 1/8 to 1/8 cable plugs from the PlugKey into the AUDIO IN on the keyboard.

 

I really like the PlugKey cause it gives me a little volume knob, which i use all the time.

 

I dont see an audio in for the NC2x, so Im wondering how id integrate my ipad with the NC2x. I see the NC2x has audio over USB, so I was wondering if there was a way to use audio over USB to get my iPad output into the NC2x without resorting to an external mixer.

 

Thanks,

Randy

 

 

I used to have the Compact 2. I connected my iPad to it through USB. Not only did the keyboard trigger the iPad synths but the audio went through the internal speakers of the Numa. I assume it will be the same for the 2X.

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I used to have the Compact 2. I connected my iPad to it through USB. Not only did the keyboard trigger the iPad synths but the audio went through the internal speakers of the Numa. I assume it will be the same for the 2X.

 

Cool, glad to hear. But that means Id need to use the iPads volume rockers, which are slow and clunky to use, in large part because of the holder its set within (a clam shell with a keyboard, turning it into a laptop ipad).

Numa Piano X73 /// Kawai ES920 /// Casio CT-X5000 /// Yamaha EW425

Yamaha Melodica and Alto Recorder

QSC K8.2 // JBL Eon One Compact // Soundcore Motion Boom Plus 

Win10 laptop i7 8GB // iPad Pro 9.7" 32GB

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If the app doesnt have volume controls, youd be able to change the volume from control center. Youd probably have to only set it once to level its volume against the C2Xs.

 

Some of the apps I have can control the volume from the screen. I dont remember if they all do.

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If the app doesnt have volume controls, youd be able to change the volume from control center. Youd probably have to only set it once to level its volume against the C2Xs.

 

Control center? What are you talking about?

 

For Neo Soul Keys Id probably get away with setting the volume and not having to fuss with it, but the program I use the most, Syntronik for iOS, Im constantly having to adjust the volume. And the onscreen volume control is worse than useless, its so sensitive that even at home in a quiet setting I can rarely get it to do what I want.

 

Am still at the beginning stages of taming Syntronik, finding my favorites and adjusting the sounds to my taste, but its the nature of the beast that the sounds are all over the place, some have a strong bottom, some scream in the high end, very few of the sounds are balanced across the keyboard or from sound to sound. And, unlike EP sounds, a lot of these patches are new territory for me, so having a volume knob for ongoing adjustments is a must for me with Syntronik.

Numa Piano X73 /// Kawai ES920 /// Casio CT-X5000 /// Yamaha EW425

Yamaha Melodica and Alto Recorder

QSC K8.2 // JBL Eon One Compact // Soundcore Motion Boom Plus 

Win10 laptop i7 8GB // iPad Pro 9.7" 32GB

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The main data knob on the NC2(&X) defaults to midi cc volume when the midi button is pressed. Then one can select upper or lower to control two apps...same midi channel for layers or separate midi channels for splits. It really is a great controller.

 

edit: Come to think about it, you can probably midi learn an app to have volume controlled by one of the 2X's sliders...ooh, THAT'S what tempts me to upgrade more than anything...those midi cc faders.

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Control center? What are you talking about?

 

iOS' control center gives you access to on-screen volume control from any app. Not practical for moment by moment adjustments, but to set once to equalize levels when your volume buttons are hidden by a case, it would work.

 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202769

https://www.macworld.com/article/3226732/ios/ios-11-how-control-center-works.html

https://www.imore.com/control-center

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The main data knob on the NC2(&X) defaults to midi cc volume when the midi button is pressed. Then one can select upper or lower to control two apps...same midi channel for layers or separate midi channels for splits. It really is a great controller.

 

edit: Come to think about it, you can probably midi learn an app to have volume controlled by one of the 2X's sliders...ooh, THAT'S what tempts me to upgrade more than anything...those midi cc faders.

 

Brenner13,

Thats awesome, sounds like even just the main data knob would work well, even get me to broadcast on 2 different MIDI channels from the iPad.

 

So its unconfirmed about the 2Xs sliders? That would be pretty awesome if its true, though I suppose folks will need to get their hands on these boards to find the ins and outs, cans and cannots.

 

 

Numa Piano X73 /// Kawai ES920 /// Casio CT-X5000 /// Yamaha EW425

Yamaha Melodica and Alto Recorder

QSC K8.2 // JBL Eon One Compact // Soundcore Motion Boom Plus 

Win10 laptop i7 8GB // iPad Pro 9.7" 32GB

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